Ahead of Time

I was conceived during a world war and was born during a catastrophic revolution. Somehow, I have managed to survive the most dangerous and violent century of our time so far. Not only this, but I have suffered a great many upheavals in my way of life. I was driven out of the country I loved, and later, was evacuated. I have lived through two wars and have found myself in many difficult situations.

My home has been in the heart of a military zone since 1974. I continue to live here now, surrounded by ghost houses. I am permitted to travel and return to my home, to this place which is normally barred to civilians. I think that my new political classification would probably be harmless relic of long ago, whom no one wants to destroy.

Elsie Slonim is not only a contemporary witness, she is also a storyteller. She witnessed the effects of the First World War and lived through the Second World War herself. She overcame National Socialism, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and more than one financial crisis.
Since the death of her husband, David, Elsie Slonim along with her dachshund, Schatzi, lives as the sole civilian inside a restricted Turkish militarised zone on the outskirts of the divided city of Nicosia; separated from the E.U. by a fence, there are no guarantees and no certainties. The story of how it all came to pass, as with the others, are both deeply personal as well as timeless.

Chris Haderer, Journalist

As difficult and wonderful and wholly without exaggeration or propaganda the content, these facts of the century of European marginalisation, persecution, extinction, expulsion, war, and genocide are described from the author’s own experience.
Remaining faithful to herself and the plain truth, as in: This is how it happened to me and in no other way, she writes in a wise and movingly poetic manner, so experientially powerful that it is truly unique in literature.